Please suggest some above average schools in cities served by Southwest Airllines

Parent Cafe
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<p>D would like to attend a largish (10,000-20,000 students) school where the weather is cooler than in Texas. I do not like the idea of long drives to and from school, but I would consider sending her somewhere served by Southwest Airlines. I'm thinking of Little Rock, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Louisville, Baltimore, Kansas City, Portland, Seattle and Albuquerque. Her grades and ECs will be good, but her scores won't be outstanding. A vibrant campus will be more important than academic rigor.</p>

<p>Any suggestions?</p>

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<p>I’m laughing at the aptness of your school choice criteria. I just went through a huge headache scheduling my daughter’s flight from Florida to New Haven, for Yale’s accepted student visit. I made a huge mistake when I booked her flight on JetBlue (I booked the WRONG !#$% DAY) and ended up having to pay their @#$^%& $100 change fee. Cursing all the while. From now on, she’s going to fly Southwest into Bradley Airport (in Hartford). No Matter What.</p>

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<p>DePaul in Chicago is a terrific school. It is vibrant. Many good programs. The kids there are very happy. Definitely worth a visit. When we visited, two acquaintances of my daughters said at two different times, unprompted: “You have GOT to come here! It is so much fun!” Many of the academic programs are excellent.
[ABOUT</a> DEPAUL: Who We Are](<a href=“http://www.depaul.edu/about/who_we_are/index.asp]ABOUT”>http://www.depaul.edu/about/who_we_are/index.asp)</p>

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<p>I can relate as we have a Southwest VISA card and get free trips by using the credit card. The easiest trip I had was flying to Pittsburgh and taking a bus from the airport to Carnegie-Mellon and Pitt. Chicago was ok but hard to get from the airport to U of Chicago using mass transit. Also flew back from Philadelphia pretty easily when we visited Swarthmore and other schools. We also flew to Providence and then took a train to Boston to visit schools. Kind of a pain but there was a shuttle van from the airport to downtown Providence. In the next few weeks we are flying to Raleigh/Durham to visit Duke and to Ontario, CA to visit Harvey Mudd. My H is doing those trips so is renting a car when he arrives. I heard this morning on the radio that Southwest is going to start flying into New York City (JFK?). That sounds exciting. </p>

<p>Seems like you have tons of possibilities but I would definitely recommend the schools in Pittsburgh just because I thought the plane to bus set-up was really easy.</p>

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<p>UC Davis or Sacramento State</p>

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<p>yeahhh! thanks for brightening my day.</p>

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<p>George Washington University, just a mile from Reagan Airport.</p>

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<p>If I could add one more requirement: tuition under $30,000 a year.</p>

<p>Husband has lived in Chicago and Pittsburgh, so he might even be amenable to DePaul or Pitt. (I don’t think she’s Carnegie Mellon material, plus their tution is quite steep.)</p>

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<p>missypie–SW flies into Denver. CU-Boulder and Colorado State University - Fort Collins (CSU may be the better match). Not sure about the COA.</p>

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<p>How far away can the campus be from the airport? For example, Southwest flies to Providence, about an hour from Boston.</p>

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<p>University of Denver; in Chicago, DePaul and Loyola</p>

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<p>I agree with NewHope33! GWU is vibrant too. And again, some programs there are outstanding. DePaul is a little easier to get into and has a bit more of a community service focus. GWU is a little harder to get into and has a bit more of a politics/government focus. DePaul and GWU are two favorites of mine; D has several friends at each, and they are very happy at their respective campuses.</p>

<p>DePaul
SAT mid 50%
reading 520-630
math 510-620</p>

<p>GWU
SAT mid 50%
reading 590-680
math 600-690</p>

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<p>missypie, I had to laugh at the criteria, but a good airline flying to your college town is really a great thing to have (JetBlue - Grrrr…)
Providence, RI, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, OR, Chicago (Midway airport - yay!) San Francisco area</p>

<p>And, as discussed in the cafe a month or so ago, Southwest has plans to add flights to Boston this coming fall - yay!!!</p>

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<p>Southwest also flies into Manchester, NH if you wish to approach Boston from the north. It is also about an hour away. No Amtrak connection but the shuttle service from the airport to Boston is about $20.</p>

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<p>missypie, Southwest has a direct flight to Philadelphia (U of Penn, Drexel, Villanova, Haverford, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr-- all w/in about 1/2 hr or so of the airport).</p>

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<p>We have a lot of friends with older kids. I’ve heard their stories. Flying, then renting a car to drive 4 more hours, or drivng 15 hours, or whatever, is not appealing. Even less appealing when there are other kids in the family.</p>

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<p>missypie–CSU and CU-Boulder are currently under $40K but closer to $35K for OOS.</p>

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<p>As for convenience to GWU, no, SW does not fly into Reagan National; but it does to BWI so consider UMBC.</p>

<p>And today I read about a BWI to LaGuardia shuttle, so I think LaGuardia will be the NY hub.</p>

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<p>I’m looking forward to having Southwest fly to Boston just so there’s more choice, but meanwhile I’ve had quite good success with Jet Blue, and even United’s fares are ridiculously low at the moment. The biggest problem with having a kid in a cooler climate is getting them out of there at the holidays. The big snow storm right before Christmas made my D’s trip home much more dramatic than I would have preferred.</p>

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Me too!
Among all the “Harvard or Yale?” and “Chance me!” posts, this one is brilliantly straightforward.</p>

<p>Maybe some enterprising young geek will come up with a “College Direction Finder” plug-in for your GPS system?</p>

<p>I vote for CU-Boulder, followed not too closely by GWU. My DW went to CU-Boulder, and she’s really vibrant.</p>